Ridgewood Council, in 3-2 vote, makes manager's appointment official

New Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld said the position is her "dream job."

Ridgewood has a new village manager.

In a 3-2 vote Wednesday night, the Ridgewood Council approved the appointment of 17-year resident Roberta Sonenfeld to the village's top administration position, a seat that has been vacant since late last August.

Sonenfeld will start her new job March 31, at which time she will begin receiving an annual salary of $155,000. She has already informed the village that she intends to waive any health benefits and stipends for travel expenses.

"This is my dream job," Sonenfeld said after a line of about 10 residents spoke in support of her and her appointment.

With many family members in attendance, Sonenfeld, 59, said the combination of three decades in senior management roles and her desire to improve her hometown "brought me to this place."

"I'm passionate about this town," she said.

The Village Council selected Sonenfeld after a six-month process of sifting through more than 50 resumes and conducting several rounds of interviews. Sonenfeld, according to Mayor Paul Aronsohn, was interviewed three times.

"It was much more important to get this right than to get it fast," Aronsohn said. "We tried to keep it an inclusive process, and make sure all five of [the council members] were always there.

"I definitely think we got it right. She brings an extraordinary amount of management experience. And she's one of us - she pays our taxes, she lives in our neighborhood," the mayor added, even joking that Sonenfeld "gets it" because an old discarded Christmas tree is still laying in front of her house.

Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli labeled Sonenfeld as a "critical thinker" and someone who has already "stopped me in my tracks."

"She is fiercely bright," he said of Sonenfeld, who previously challenged the deputy mayor to broaden his thinking on projects such as the fleet services relocation plan.

Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck highlighted Sonenfeld's prior community service, which includes volunteer posts with the Ridgewood Historical Society, the Ridgewood Education Foundation and the Volunteer Center of Bergen County. She also participates with Bergen LEADS.

"The [village] employees deserve kind leadership. These are tough times and they should feel like they are supported," Hauck said, adding that the council received a letter of recommendation from a senior official at the United Nations, where Sonenfeld has performed consulting work.

"If the United Nations thinks she can hold it together ... I think she'll be good for Ridgewood," Hauck said.

Manager's background

Sonenfeld has been serving for several months on Ridgewood's Financial Advisory Committee, assisting staff at Village Hall with the 2014 municipal budget, among other financial matters. She will likely step down from the FAC, though Sonenfeld said she will look to its members for their input.

"There was a lot of sharing of ideas on the committee. Being with them was very stimulating," she said in an interview with The Ridgewood News earlier this week. "I think it would be silly not to leverage that talent base."

And it's not only for financial reasons that she will rely on input from the committee. To Sonenfeld, municipal success depends on effectiveness, efficiency and overall satisfaction.

"If you measure yourself by financial performance only, you're measuring yourself by a lagging indicator. If your customer service is [poor], that's a leading indicator because all of a sudden, you can see revenues starting to drop and employee morale can start shifting downward," she said.

Sonenfeld arrives at Village Hall toting a lengthy history of consulting, senior management and supervisory positions. As an executive and vice president from 1994 to 1998 at Citibank, she oversaw a staff of roughly 1,900 employees and a budget of $200 million. While at Deutsche Bank, where she was a partner and managing director from 1998 to 2000, Sonenfeld led a staff of 2,500 workers under a $225 million budget.